Frame for telephone instrument numbers



Feb. 16, 1932. c. GUTBERLET 1,845,747

FRAME FOR TELEPHONE INSTRUMENT NUMBERS Filed Dec. 29, 1930 a d (421w Z m 1 I H .Jf" I A J ,1

lHlUjlln [WWW mluum HII mum l1 W mp b umummmjlm 'HIHIHIH num 20 HHHHH Uharlei2fi3i BYW.W

A TTORNEY.

Patented Feb. 16, 1932 UNETED STATES CHARLES J. GUTBERLET, F PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA FRAME FOR TELEPHONE INSTRUMEN T NUMBERS Application filed December 29, 1930. Serial No. 505,255.

My device belongs to the class of telephone instrument indicators which will enable the number and station to be designated by the insertion of movable slips in a frame 6 that is inserted in a telephone instrument holder. As is well known, the installer often cannot know, until the instrument is ii'istallcd, the number and sometimes the exchange to which the instrument he is installing is to 0 be connected. Consequently the use of a frame, insertible in the holder, in which the number can be built up from numbered slips has become a regular part of the installers equipment.

My invention has reference to the parts that constitute the frame and their arrangement and positioning whereby the entire construction is cheapened and the assemblage of the parts made easy and their formation simplified and made easy to produce in quantities.

Fig. 1 shows the entire device in the hold er. Fig. 2 shows the front plate and insertible number slips. Fig. 3 is the back plate. Fig. 4. is a view of the strip frame from which the middle plate is formed. Fig. 5 is a View of the strip from which the front plate is made. Fig. 6 is a view of the blank from which the back plate is made, and Fig. 7' is a side elevation of the frame.

Into a holder 1 inserted the frame, marked as a whole, A. This frame has a front plate 2 that is usually blackened or colored except the space 3 for the numbers and the space el for the exchange or other designation. This frame is of celluloid material. This blackened or colored surface is placed on the inner face of the front plate, the smooth surface of the plate being outside. This plate 2 is cut from the blank 20 shown in Fig. 5.

The middle plate is formed from blank 21, which cut as follows :The strip 21 that furnishes the middle plate has the pair of apertures 9 and 10 separated from each other by the bridge 5, which may be repeated throughout the strips length. The speed and ease with which this strip may be cut off is apparent. This strip may be cemented to the strip with the bridge 5 parallel to and spaced approximately midway between the undarkened areas 3 and 4. y

The third blank 22 a strip narrower than the strip 20 and is cemented to the stri 21 forn'aiug the middle plate, so that the bridge 5 lies about midway between its side edges. Both the second and third strips are made, preferably, also of celluloid material.

The compound strip is then cut through by a round cutting die, producing the frame shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 7. The position of this cut is indicated by the broken line m.

All these operations may be done by hand or on a series of very simple machines. When they are completed, the frame is finished.

The frame has two pockets (1, (Z, each between the front plate 2 and the back plate 16. The bottom of each pocket is formed by the bridge 5 and their sides by the edges a, a, of the openings in the strip 21, which, when out into the round shape, forms the H shaped middle plate.

The back plate 16 which covers the entire width of the frame, but covers a portion only of its height, forms the back of the pocket. The frame has therefore a space b, b, which is not covered by the back plate, the edge 0, 0, of which forms the edge of the back of the pocket (Z. Into this spaceare inserted the strips 7 with the numbers on their ends, which rest at their ends against the bottom of the pocket (1, formed by the edge of the bridge 5. After the strips 7 have been inserted, they are trimmed off and the frame is inserted in the holder 1.

The frame is completely enclosed in the holder, the darkened portion of the face plate is inside so that it will not be scratched by any ordinary usage. Either pocket may be filled by number strips or by a solid insert, or either pocket may be omitted. If a change of numbering is desired the extending of the ends of the insert strips outside of the pocket makes it very easy to remove and replace them.

I claim 1. In a frame for changeable number holdcrs for telephone instruments, the combina tion of a front plate, of celluloid material, having its inner face darkened over a portion of its surface and undarkened portions for display of the numbers, a middle plate having a pocket forming an opening therein, a portion of the first plate forming the front wall of the pocket, and a rear plate extending across said plates and forming the rear wall of said pocket, said rear plate being less in height than the other two plates and leaving bare portions of the front plate beyond the opening of said pocket.

2. The art of making a frame for changeable numbers for telephone instruments, which comprises forming a series of three strips of celluloid material, one of them having a surface with a darkened area co -extensive with the dark area of the frame, a second of them having cut therein two openings separated from each other by a narrow band of the constituent material, and a third strip being ofa Width substantially less than the width of the opaque area, and \then superposing and cementing these strips together, with'the side of the first strip having the darkened area cemented against the second strip, the said narrow band extending substantially diametrically across the darkened area of the first strip, and then cementing the third strip to the second strip so that its edges are substantially parallel to said band and lie within the border of the dark area and then cutting through the strips so cemented around the darkened area, forming a frame.

CHAS. J. GUTBERLET. 

